


all my wrong choices

by kunnskat



Series: OCs Through the Fandoms [10]
Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: F/M, Gen, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:23:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14044209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunnskat/pseuds/kunnskat
Summary: She thinks she can control it all if she just follows through canon.





	all my wrong choices

"Have you got a name, yet?"

"I'm just going to go with my own, I think. That way you'll both know it's me," her friend winks, striking a modeling pose. It looks ridiculous, she tries not to laugh for a full minute but looks towards their other friend, who's struggling with the same thing, and by then it's too late to stop it.

"Oi," Nitid huffs at them, but then she's laughing, too.

"As if we wouldn't recognize you anywhere, superstar."

"Ew," wrinkling her nose at them like the child she is, Mani lifts her helmet onto her head. "Good luck finding me, I'm not telling what my name'll be. The less of that flirting I have to endure, the better."

"Love you, too," she hears as she speaks a soft, "Link Start", eyes closing and options falling into her view. She turns on touch, then sight, hearing, taste and smell. Those are easy choices. It's the language she struggles with, if she should stick with Japanese or try English. She might get out of practice, though, she eventually she accepts Japanese and tells herself she'll speak English in the game. Her friends will be there with her, they'll let her practice on them.

She logs in on the account she'd created just for this, then goes crazy on her avatar even if it won't last. Red, long hair. Pretty green eyes. Older. The prettiest dark clothing she could find that she could still feel comfortable wearing regularly, even with limited options. For a second time she struggles, her nickname in this thing could be something she's always wanted to use but had no ability to explain away. She hasn't had classes on it, her knowledge of this one thing should be impossible. But she's so, so tempted. It's one of those few things she's got left, she wants to use it--

So she taps in the word, knowing it might screw her over later on.

She appears in the middle of the town, grins and takes off running. They'll find her at the library she's sure has to be here somewhere. All towns have libraries and she bets she can find lots of interesting things they'll need to know if she finds the one here.

“Mani?” lifting her head, she blinks up at Adar, smiling-- “ah, you found me after all. Too bad.”

“Funny, come on. We're all supposed to meet in the middle right about now, you know? Nitid is waiting for us.”

“Coming, coming,” now's the time, right? When her avatar is reverted to herself again. Maybe if she refuses to check for the mirror she can keep this? Can't hurt to try.

“Did you learn a lot in the whole ten minutes you've spent in the game?”

“Wow, is that sarcasm I hear? I have taught you well,” she fakes wiping a tear and has to avoid a swat to the head from Adar. “Anyway, we're just on the first floor, there won't be that much information here, I bet.”

“We'll start like everyone else, then. Fight those boars I've heard about. Learn some sword skills.”

“Aah, you're taking this so easy, everyone'll surpass us like this y'know.”

“Don't worry about it, we'll do it all together and have fun with it and that's all that'll matter,” he pats her head so kindly this time, like always while they're at school.

“Have fun with that?”

“Nitid-chan, Nitid-chan! Adar was mean to me!”

“Oi, oi. See if I try to comfort you again, huh?”

Nitid laughs at them, but neither of them can manage to pout at her for long with the sunset behind her. She's so pretty like that, even with the little changes to herself.

"Come on, let's go learn some sword skills," letting herself get dragged off by Nitid, she checks the time and wonders if maybe she got the timing of it wrong. Or maybe this universe won't leave them stuck in SAO. Whatever, they'll be fine so why worry?

"Hey. Mani. Can you check something for me?"

"What's up?" she wanders over to Adar, peeking over his shoulder now that she physically can.

"See a log out button anywhere?"

Oh.

"No. Probably just a bug, did you ask Nitid yet?"

"No, didn't want to worry her. You know how she gets."

"True. Let me check mine," she goes through the motions despite knowing she'll find nothing and ends up shaking her head at Adar. "Let's not tell Nitid yet, anyway."

"Your idea, you take the blame when she figures it out."

"Coward," Mani sticks her tongue out at him, crossing her eyes when he grasps onto it with two fingers, lightly pinching it before letting go.

"Want me to steal that? No? Then be careful where you poke it."

"I'll tell Nitid you just did that."

"You'll tell me what?" Nitid appears as if out of nowhere, spooking them both.

"Nothing!" they chorus, looking away from each other with equally guilty looks.

"Sure it isn't," her tone is filled with doubt and Mani winces, knowing she's the absolute worst out of the two at pretending. And she'd been so good at it, too, before these two idiots entered her life.

"I wanna go back to town," it's the only excuse she can come up with, and it's probably that time soon too. The GM will force a teleportation on them and announce that they'll all probably die in this game and throw their real appearances back on them. Would it be better to already be there or to let it happen? Aah, at least they'll be safer in the safe zone until they know enough to protect themselves. They're so reckless right now, she's getting really worried.

Mani hadn't realized how badly they might react to Kayaba's announcement. Nitid is crying, Adar looks terrified, and all she can do is hold their hands to remind them that they're in this together, that she's not going to let them die. They don't need to be scared, she'll keep them safe.

She stops them from reaching into their inbox and accepting the mirrors, telling them that it might be a trick and that they should wait and see what happens. Just in case, right?

Only, she'd been wrong about the mirrors. They're not what turns them into themselves, that's all Kayaba. The mirrors are so they can see the changes. She still doesn't accept hers, yet, deciding that she'd rather try selling it later. She knows how she looks, she doesn't need Kayaba's mirror for that. She doesn't bother letting her friends try, so when Kayaba finishes up his monologue, they're wandering near the outskirts of the circle, checking for a way out, Adar taking point.

The panicked masses push closer and Mani feels fear grasp her. This is supposed to be a safe zone, they can't get hurt here, right?

"Come on," Adar graps onto them both, dragging them out of there the moment they're able to leave, Mani is the only reason they're not going as fast as any of them would prefer.

"What do we do?" she knows what they should do, what might be better for them, but Nitid is pretty good at tactics and Adar read about the game from beta testers' comments before they started, so they might know better.

"Next town over? There'll be a lot of people on the plains here, soon," Nitid points out and Mani thanks her silently when Adar only nods, changing directions immediately.

"We're going to make it," Mani can't pretend she's not worried, but she can at least remind them that they're together. They won't let each other die.

"What'll we do about the NerveGear?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your mother will get home during the night. She doesn't pay attention to the news when she's travelling," Adar points out a lot more calmly than Mani would've if she'd been the one to remember.

"We can't do anything about that other than promise to keep going no matter what happens," Mani hopes that the woman that makes those awkward duckling faces at her every time she visits Nitid will decide that she's the one she needs to wake up first, if she's going to start pulling off the helmets. At least her friends will survive her idiocy, then. So if making them promise to go on no matter what is what it'll take, she's happy to do it.

"We'll get to that if it happens," Nitid seems determined to pretend so they let it go for now.

"Are there guide books?" Mani thinks she remembers there should be some. Will be some within the month, at least. Unlike Adar, she hasn't checked out all of the shop. Well, probably. Adar is thorough.

"Probably, Adar'll tell us all about it when he's ready to remember that we're people and not dolls to pull along. Why?"

"I didn't check. We might need to think long term. Not rent lots of rooms and so on. What about a house? Should we save up for one?"

"Woah, I'm not ready to live with the two of you."

"Hey, look who's back with the group," Mani elbows him. Just because she can. "And speaking of. Should we think up a name for our party? What's the policy if anyone wants to join up with us?"

"For once, your ability to not let go of a game will be helpful," Adar's thinking again, though, so she lets the hint of sarcasm pass.

"We'll figure it out," is the attempt at comforting them all that Nitid offers. She's always been good at that.

They're on their third town on level one, two days in on the game, when Mani watches Adar and Nitid fall and for half a moment she thinks they're dying, that they're going to crash into the ground and explode into dust, so she jumps at them in hopes of stopping them from falling and everything goes dark.

"Mani!"

"...Ouch," she tries to get out, show that she's okay, but she's not sure how successful she is.

"Mani, c'mon," Adar's voice sounds closer, when she opens her eyes his face is all she sees, concern visible this close. "You've gotta wake up, we're lacking in so much snark here that I got bored to tears already."

Mani smiles faintly, twitching her fingers to try and reach for them. A warm hand grasps hers, feels like Nitid, "wha- what happened?"

"You just fell," Nitid must be crying, her words are all wobbly. Shit, she hates it when Nitid cries. "We all- no one was keeping watch and we thought- we thought because we'd woken up and you hadn't that you-"

They stumble into a rented room together and none of them say a word when they fall into bed together or when they wake up still all touching each other.

They're a lot more careful after this, but Mani is glad because it means that neither of them will die because of outside sources. All she's got left to worry about are the monsters and the player killers. The monsters are easy enough to work around if they can't beat them, until they hear talk about fighting the first boss and Adar insists on going to check it out.

They meet Kirito the Beater when it's over and they're trembling with victory and terror all in one and Mani runs after him up the stairs and through the gate, calling out for him to wait, because she can't do anything about how things went on in the boss room, but she can make sure he knows he doesn't need to be alone if he doesn't want to be, despite his knowledge. He didn't ask for this, and though she can't convince everyone, she wants to convince him.

Adar and Nitid find her later like she'd known they would, and she smiles and introduces Kirito, her new friend, to them without hesitation.

Then he vanishes with a promise to keep in touch so she knows he's alive and she doesn't see him again until she's in the corner of a bar, trying to get drunk and unable to figure out what she needs to do to succeed. She knows there's a way, she just can't remember how it's supposed to go. Adar sits on the other side of the bar, staring out a window like he's a statue, and she sees Kirito approach him and slowly gets up, trying not to attract either of their attention while safely making her escape.

Kirito catches up to her outside, calls her nickname, the one- the one Nitid- the one her friends couldn't pronounce. He's not the best at it, but he's better than they- he's better. Mani doesn't look at him, guilt and pain still dragging her further down until she's drowning in it. She keeps walking like it'll help her breathe and hopes he'll go away so she won't get him ki- won't get- won't ruin everything.

A hand grasps hers and she thinks it's starting to rain, except the air is dry, and Kirito frowns sadly at her.

Why she breaks for him and not Adar who she loves more, will always love the most now that Nitid- will always love the most, she doesn't know. But she feels good enough after to let him drag her back to Adar so she can fix what she's got left.

They're a lot more careful after this, sometimes too careful, but at least they're both there to greet Kirito when he comes to introduce little Yui to them.

"She's cute," Mani announces like she's not a little brat herself. She's not that taller than Yui but she's going to use the little difference there is like her life depends on it. And it might, if they start thinking she's too young for any of this.

"Yes," Asuna agrees with a smile, the little girl clinging to her hand. It's really, really cute. Mani feels a little nostalgic just watching, so she takes Adar's hand and smiles when he lets her.


End file.
